A native of Baltimore, Ann Deavere Smith educates her audiences, domestic and foreign, with her illuminating explorations of American character.
Smith's insight into character is enhanced by empathy, which she first realized after seeing a performance of "West Side Story." After crying and crying her mother remarked that she was too sensitive to be the psychiatrist Smith had planned on becoming. Her ability to translate others' lives into word and action, and her chameleon characterizations of those lives helps the understanding of what others experience.
Smith is best known for her one-woman plays, in which she serves as both author and actor. The first, Twilight: Los Angeles 1992, examined civil unrest following the Rodney King verdict. In this play, Smith relates the stories of several people involved in the unrest including Police Chief Daryl Gates, a Korean grocer, a Los Angeles Times editor and various activists and gangbangers. The play won an Obie Award, a Tony nomination, a Drama Desk Award, a Special Citation from the New York Drama Critics, two NAACP Theatre Awards as well as numerous other honors.
The second, Fires in the Mirror: Crown Heights, Brooklyn and Other Identities, also won an Obie and was runner-up for the 1993 Pulitzer Prize. Here she again exposes a variety of experiences involved in the 1991 conflict between Jews and Blacks. Smith takes her text from interviews she conducted with people involved with both situations.
These plays are part of Smith's continuing series, On the Road: A Search for the American Character. The latest installment is House Arrest, which premiered at the New York Shakespeare Festival/Joseph Papp Public Theater in the Spring of 2000. This play looks at the American presidency and the mythic role it plays in American society.
Smith is a sought-after actor, playing roles in Dave, Philadelphia and The American President on the big screen and The Practice and The West Wing on television. She also is a tenured professor at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University with an additional affiliation at the NYU School of Law.
While preparing to write the plays Smith spent time on the 1996 campaign trail talking with various political players, historians, journalists and others. She also attended both Democratic and Republican conventions as a correspondent for Newsweek magazine. From these experiences came a book, "Talk to Me: Listening Between the Lines," from her observations and impressions of her time spent in Washington as well as on the road. The book was published in October 2000.
Smith spent three summers (1998-2000) at the Institute on the Arts & Civic Dialogue, a three-year experiment, which she founded at Harvard University. The second phase has begun, which focuses on the dissemination of materials participants have learned so far. Dedicated to supporting the development of works of art that deal with social issues, the Institute utilizes artists, scholars and audiences for a cross-disciplinary approach. The Institute is supported by a grant from the Ford Foundation, in which Smith served as its first artist-in-residence in 1997.
[Davidson Distinguished Lecture Series]
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